They were in an interview room, the tape recorder in front of Meredith allowing her to talk.
She pulled her phone out and one by one listed dates and what happened on those days that were all the same time as when all the incidents occurred.
Her one run-in with Richie had been when he walked into her classroom accusing her of calling social services and demanding that no one was picking on his daughter again, then fighting with his mother over the amount of food being given to Macy.
“I can’t think of anything else,” she said. “If I remember it, can I call?”
“You can,” Ford said, hitting the button to stop the recording.
“I feel bad for Macy. Richie won’t get bail, will he? I mean, I’m worried about his daughter and Rosie. Would he take it out on his mother also?”
“His mother refused to post bail last night. My guess is they don’t have it, but she wasn’t giving it if she had. She hung up on him and told him he was on his own,” Ford said. “He wasn’t allowed back at the house or near Macy.”
“Can I file a restraining order? Clay told me I should do that and have it on record.”
“Yes,” Ford said. “We’ll get that going also. You should make your employers aware of what is going on. I’m positive that they may prevent you from contacting Macy until this is resolved.”
Her shoulders dropped. “Why?”
“Less chance of conflict. Rosie Stubban said she wasn’t sending Macy to school today. She is going to have to deal with legal guardianship.”
“So Macy might end up in foster care over this?”
Clay reached for her hand. “Don’t get drawn into this. I know it’s hard for you, but you have to let it go.” He was looking into her eyes. “Breathe in and out. It can’t be your problem to solve. It can’t be your burden to carry. If you take too much on, you can’t be you for everyone else.”
She mirrored her breathing to his, then nodded her head.
They finished, Clay walking out with Meredith, giving her a kiss and watching her pull away.
“Come to my office.”
He turned to see Ford standing with the door open for him to go back into the building.
It wasn’t that busy, most of his staff not in yet.
“What now?” he asked.
“Are you okay?”
“Are we going to go there again?” he asked. “I shouldn’t have slammed him against the door.”
Ford sighed. “That’s between us. No one else saw it.”
Clay saw the knife when Ford took it out after patting down Richie who was cuffed and against the door, and lost his shit.He grabbed the guy by the back of his neck and slammed his face to the door, growling in his ear about picking on people his own size rather than being a coward and going after women and children.
Ford pulled him off at the same time another deputy pulled in.
Since Meredith hadn’t said a word about it, she couldn’t have been watching the camera feed.
“You would have done the same thing,” he said. “You wanted to.”
“I did,” Ford said. “But I’ve got a lot more control than you do.”
In the past he would have disputed that comment. Today he didn’t think he could.
“I don’t want to think of what could have happened if the camera wasn’t there. Or I didn’t know her.”
“The neighbor called it in already,” Ford said. “Someone was on the way.”
